The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked telecom operators to introduce at least one data plan with a validity of 365 days. The Economic Times reports that the authority has asked the service providers to introduce a data pack with longer validity at the earliest as it sees this as a chance to boost data consumption among first-time users.
TRAI had approved annual data packs last year, but only BSNL has launched such a pack. The report notes that the regulator is slightly annoyed that not a single operator, barring BSNL, has announced plans with longer validity. It added that the fact that telecom operators had themselves asked for a waiver that limited data plans to 90 days, made it even more surprising.
The telecom regulator has now asked mobile operators to implement at least one plan with a validity of 365-days. The plan should also carry a single-payment option to attract first-time data users. TRAI believes the addition of a data pack with longer validity will attract marginal and first-time mobile internet users. The advisory does not mandate service providers to immediately launch mobile internet data pack with 365-day validity, but it hopes that more service providers will come on board with such data plans.